Volkswagen Beetle

The Beetle is a car marketed by Volkswagen since the forties. Initially commissioned by German dictator Adolf Hitler as a "people's car" in an attempt to create an automobile anyone could afford, it became one of the most iconic automobiles of all time. It was created by Ferdinand Porsche and features a rear-engined configuration that Porsche would apply to all of his sports and racing cars. The car was marketed in the US until the seventies, but continued in Mexico for decades after that. The Beetle was popular with hippies in the sixties. When revived as the New Beetle, the car was criticized for being front engined instead of the original rear-engined configuration. After awhile the name "New" Beetle was criticized as being no longer necessary. The "New" has since been dropped. The original Beetle competed in the Trans Am Series under two liter class. It was famously used in the Herbie series of films in which a Beetle named Herbie had a mind of its own and competed humorously in racing. The series includes The Love Bug, Herbie Rides Again, Herbie Goes Bananas, and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo. The franchise was revived with Herbie Fully Loaded, but fans of the originals claim it wasn't the same. The original featured a "Super Beetle" model in the seventies. The name Volkswagen is German for "people's car" (a "folk's wagon"), although Mercedes had also tried. The modern Beetle has only competed in spec racing. In the original Transformers franchise, Autobot Bumblebee transforms into a Beetle. Much to the criticism of fans of the series, Bumblebee now transforms into a Chevrolet Camaro. The Plymouth Roadrunner had a modified Beetle horn which made a "beep beep" sound like the classic Looney Tunes character. The Beetle had engines up to 1.6 liters.